Be my number two
by Andieke
Summary: Cameron and Chase, will it happen or will his dad get what he wants?
1. Chapter 1

**This is my newest story. **

**It's a Cameron and Chase story. That's all I'm gonna say.**

**For the disclaimer I think you know the drill :)**

**Thanks to Janne for being my BETA**

**Be my number two**

Dreams, everybody has them and if they are good everybody likes them. Allison Cameron wasn't any different. Waking up from a good dream always made her day start off well. Not that she would ever tell the others about her dreams. Because first they were her dreams, it was private and the others had nothing do with it. Secondly, Foreman and Chase would have a field day with it when they knew what she dreamed about. They would probably start laughing and never stop. They would because her best dream was a real teenage dream. There were different versions but the idea was always the same. It was the dream about the boy/guy you like and you just ended up at a highly romantic place plus the guy would do everything you want him to do. What kept Cameron tight lipped about her dreams was the guy she dreamed about. Okay Foreman and Chase knew she liked House, but she wasn't ready, nor would she ever be to tell them House was the main character in her teenage dream. Plus another reason why she never told them was the fact that House in real life was just an arrogant bastard and they would point out that her Dream House was just a dream and she didn't want to hear that. It was painful enough being remembered through his actions at work. She didn't need the others to point it out as well.

The alarm clock started his second round of annoying beeps telling Cameron she really needed to get up. She hit the button but didn't get up straight away. She tried to keep hold of the dream, trying to remember what had happened. This time it had been the beach and sunset version. They were walking with their feet in the water and they had just stopped walking and were just looking into each other's eyes when the clock woke her up. Cameron really tried to relive that moment. And then suddenly sat up with a shock. She had remembered very clearly what had happened in her dream and she didn't really like it. Normally it would be House in the role of the perfect gentleman. But this time, things were different. First House had darker hair, not perfect blond, secondly House's hair didn't hang in his eyes and his eyes were blue, not green.

By taking deep breaths Allison tried to calm herself down when the idea of Chase and her on the beach sank in, taking a permanent place in her mind.

During her morning routine and the drive to work she tried to figure out how Chase had wormed his way into her dreams. She did think of him last night when she went home. House had sent him to search the patient's house and hadn't returned yet. She had results for him, but she decided not to wait for him. She left him a note, but the entire evening was spend asking herself whether he got it or not. In the end she had called him, just to be sure.

It must have been that, the constant thinking of him, work related of course. That was the way he had wormed his way into her dreams, because there wasn't any other explanation possible.

When Allison entered the diagnostics room Chase was already there, accompanied with his loyal crossword puzzle. He hardly looked up when she entered, it was just enough to acknowledge her presence.

'Morning' He said

'Morning' she replied. She put away her coat and went to the coffee corner. She was glad Chase was the first one in today. He knew the art of perfect coffee; they were really blessed to have him on the team. Luckily Chase was often the first one in, so they were often blessed with very good coffee. Even House hadn't found anything to complain about and that meant something.

When she turned and walked towards the table, she couldn't help but looking at him. He was totally focussed on the puzzle. She chose the opposite side of the table, allowing her to look at him without being caught straight away. He sat slightly turned away from her, making it even harder for him to spot her staring.

Robert Chase was a handsome man; she had to give him that. He was the dream of many nurses in the hospital.

At work Chase was just Chase really. Always capable of earning the trust of patients. As an intensivist he knew the balance of life and death. Perhaps that was why he was always capable to connect to the patient. He has seen pretty much everything about living and dying and always seemed to relate to what the patient was going through.

Chase was the first duckling, like House liked to call them, yet he took the most beating. The Vogler episode was part of it, just as the Tritter period were everybody made it seem like Chase had spilled the beans when in the end it had been Wilson. Although that the remarks, the comments found their base in those episodes it had been a while ago, but still Chase took them in silence. He hardly reacted or talked back like Foreman or she did; but she did notice reaction when House ditched out again. Often a strange look would appear on his face, his jaw would clench, but he hardly said anything back. It convinced Cameron that the Chase she knew wasn't the real Chase. That the Chase she saw knew was a carefully built up wall and the real Chase was hidden underneath. But in the recent past the mask had shown some cracks. The first crack appeared when his father had come over to visit him. It had looked like his dad wanted to repair the bridges between them, but Chase had been against it. He had nearly fled the hospital and refused to be in the same room as his dad. After work she had invited him for dinner, she wanted to figure out what had happened between father and son, but Chase hardly told her anything. The only thing he said was that they had a fall out so many years ago and that he wasn't planning on bonding with his dad. She had tried, probed to figure out some more, but he had refused to tell more, always repeating that same reason. In the end she had giving up, but that didn't stop her wondering. Something serious happened and she just wanted to know, so perhaps she could help fixing it.

Alcohol abuse was the second thing that could crack the outer layers. She knew the reason about that and why he refused to drink any alcohol. His mother had drunk herself to dead and from what she knew Chase had been there to witness it. At one point Chase had slipped some vital information about his childhood, allowing Cameron to figure out he was 15 when it happened. In the entire mother addiction to booze story, his father was never mentioned. That led Cameron into thinking that the row between father and son had something to do with the mother, her addiction and her death.

'Cameron?' she woke from her day dream and noticed Chase looking at her.

'I'm sorry, I must have drifted off' she said. He looked at her, studying her face, but after a few seconds he seemed satisfied and returned to his puzzle.

Cameron grabbed the medical journal that lay in the middle of the table. She wasn't planning on reading it, but she needed something to hide her crimson face. She couldn't believe herself, getting caught staring at Chase. He couldn't read her dreams or thoughts from her face, but she felt better shielding it from him. They had shared a 'friends with benefits' thing and it had been okay for her. Things ended when he had expressed his feelings and she wasn't ready for it. She was still caught up in her feelings for House, she still is and there for she blew him off. Yet that didn't stop him from declaring his love for her. Every Tuesday he would remind her. She didn't really like it, but she had caught herself missing it the other day when they hadn't seen each other for the entire day. She had felt disappointed, thinking he had forgotten about her and had moved on. She remembered she had felt excited when he called after her in the parking space. Okay, so maybe she didn't like him, but it feels good to be reminded someone cares about you. Even when you don't return the feelings. Because that was the reality. She liked Chase as a friend but nothing more, it was just impossible. She liked House, so she just couldn't feel anything other that friendship towards Chase.

"_So why do you have to convince yourself like that?"_ She asked herself. It was a very good question, one not easily answered.

Cameron lowered the journal a bit and glanced over the side. There had been times where she was surprised by what she saw or felt, but this time it hit her hard. Glancing over the journal allowed her very good view at Chase and she came to a shocking realization.

She liked Chase and not in the just friends kind of way. That was why he had wormed himself in her dreams, no thinking about him in a work related situation. No, she actually liked him and that was why he was appearing in her dreams.

Allison ducked behind the journal for a second time, trying to process the new feelings she had just discovered. It was just too strange to see people you saw every day in a complete different light. Right she had seen Chase from a total different position before, but she had never taken a very good look at him, at the person she was working with. She knew every detail from his body, thanks to their fling status awhile ago. Her hands remembered travelling up and down his well formed, well muscled body. But that wasn't the only thing she remembered from those nights or fooling around at work. Chase's eyes were his best feature. The fact that she never could pinpoint their exact colour had often left her frustrated but she also used it as an excuse to keep looking at him, hoping that one day she would find the perfect name for the colour.

They still sat there in peace, just focussing on their own business. Chase was busy or at least pretended to be busy with his puzzle and Cameron pretended to read the journal while in reality she was checking out Chase. For every normal person it would seem like two colleague's minding their own business, but House wasn't a normal person.

Doctor Gregory House was no ordinary man, nor did he ever try to be one. He was sometimes a very cruel man, but the people working around him were used to that by now. But beside that he was also a very observant man. Nothing around him happened without him noticing it. Sometimes he didn't respond to it, but usually he did in his own typical rude way. But what he saw in the diagnostics room kinda made him lost for words. The scene was so obvious. Two people longing for each other, but one's hope had been crushed by the other. But from what House now saw the other one seemed to realize what had been going on for a while now, she actually loved the first one back.

For the first time Cameron would find out how it felt, knowing you loved someone, but not sure the other one loved you back.

House never showed it, but he kinda cared about his ducklings. When Wilson mentioned it, he always replied by saying he couldn't work with people who weren't well. But the truth was that after all these years of working together they had grown on him, more than he ever wanted to admit. He had come to known them better and better. Or well at least he had come to know two of them pretty well.

Cameron was the easiest one to figure out. Just looking at her told you half of her story. She was the 'I wanna make the world a better place' woman and she showed it in everything she did. She had the tendency to want to fix people, like she had tried to fix him a while ago. She hadn't stopped wanting to fix him but had become subtle in it. The other half was figured out when he learned about her past and the fact that she had married a dying man. It was all part of her plan for the world.

Foreman was actually as easy as Cameron to figure out. Everything about him screamed ambition, the will to be become the best doctor out there. It all came from the will to prove that his background was in the past, that his juvenile behaviour was long forgotten and that the new Foreman was here to stay. In a way Foreman was the most House like. He didn't care about the rest, the only thing he wanted was to be proved right and not accepting failure.

And then there was Chase. From the minute his file has passed through his hands House had been intrigued by Chase. The name connection was easily made when he noticed the nationality but that had sparked even more interest from House. Why would Chase junior leave the country when he could have made use of his name and just followed in his dad's footssteps. The interview had been one in a million. House tried everything he could do make Chase admit why he fled Australia, but the Australian had managed to avoid answering these questions. Robert Chase was a fine intensivist, that was the main reason why House had hired him. But Chase the enigma was another reason. House was used to get everything he wanted and it was known he would do pretty much everything to achieve that goal. But Chase proved tougher than expected. When House managed to break a layer he found another one underneath and the broken layer recovered in record time.

House knew about the dad and the mom. The fact that the dad had abandoned the son and leaving him to care for the alcoholic mom. He had overheard the conversation in the hallway when Chase senior had come over for a visit. It had also explained the tension between father and son, but that had explained everything. Chase was House's favorite duckling to toy with. Probably because he trusted Chase the most. Trust that had been broken by Chase going to Vogler. But it was also trust that slowly but surely got rebuild, Chase sticked around, he would probably move heaven and earth to save his life, because that was in his nature. But the teasing, the mocking had also another goal: to get something out of the silent Australian. It was in the hope that the wombat would snap at one point and reveal everything House wanted to know. But till now that hadn't happened. But from the looks of it, it seemed that House had just gained a bystander. Cameron, in her wanting to fix Chase mode would want to find out as well. And perhaps the two of them would get to the bottom of it.


	2. Chapter 2

**I'm sorry it took so long before I could update the story. i'm just so busy with work and my paper for school. It's a short one, but I felt better splitting this chapter up in two separate ones. It's the unbeta'd one, I just didn' t wanna make you wait even longer. **

**Greets**

**Chapter two**

The next morning, after the big realisation Cameron woke up without remembering her dream. Instead of having that glowing feeling she got up feeling something was about to happen, something big.

On the way to the hospital nothing happened, but the feeling only got stronger. It was nearly unbearable when she entered the hospital.

As she was running late, Cameron dashed out of the elevator and hurried towards the office. There she entered in what could be called the atmosphere of war. On one side of the table Foreman and Chase sat down. Forman looked alright, but the look on Chase's face told her enough. Something was up and Chase wasn't happy about it. Her eyes travelled around the room. House was standing near the white board. Although House was difficult to read, she could detect some angriness in his face as well. Not in the same amount as with Chase, but it was there. The 3 of them were looking at the other side of the table and Cameron followed suit. There on the other side, stood two persons. One she knew as he had visited them before, some years back. The other one, the woman she didn't know. Chase's anger was easily explained by his father's presence in the room. The last visit hadn't gone well and it would surprise Cameron if the two would ever make peace again. But Chase's deadly gaze was directed at both persons and Cameron wondered what the woman had done wrong.

'You're late.' House said, but not in his usual tone. No, there was something else, irritation. Cameron couldn't place it, was it because she was late, or was it because of what was happening in the room?

'What's going on?' She asked.

'If you were here on time you wouldn't have missed all the fun.' House said.

'Not that there was any fun to witness.' Foreman said. Looking at Foreman told her that he was somewhat irritated, probably because he didn't know either was going on.

'Robert?' Rowan Chase said, looking at his only son. He had heard it, it was impossible not to have heard his father talk, but Chase showed no emotion, no sign he had heard his father. Rowan suppressed a sight, knowing it would make things only worse.

'Can I, I mean, can we speak in private?' He asked.

'If you have anything to say, you can do it here.' Chase replied emotionless.

Now Rowan couldn't suppress the sigh, all he wanted to do was grabbing him by the arm and pull him outside. But he couldn't, first because you don't do that to a grown up anymore, secondly he probably lost that right years ago and thirdly his health, his condition wouldn't allow him to do it.

Rowan now looked at House, with a somewhat pleading look. Perhaps he could get the others out of the room.

'Oh no, we all wanna know what's going on, so we're not moving' House said.

Rowan felt somewhat defeated. He didn't want any audience when talking to Robert, mainly because he didn't know how he would react to the news. So he decided to leave certain things out of the conversation.

'We want you to come home.' Rowan said.

'Why?' was the short reply Chase gave him.

'Does a father have to explain why he wants his son to come home?'

After that, Chase got up, grabbed the badge that was lying in front of him on the table. House had thrown him his badge to do his clinic hours just before his father had come in.

'As far as I'm concerned, I don't have a father.' Chase said as he walked passed to the door and left.


	3. Chapter 3

Here's the next chapter. Hope you'll still read it :) It's unbeta'd for now, I'm gonna let it be done when the whole story is finished (won't be long). I kinda changed the style, but the outcome will be the same :)

let me know what you think!!

**Chapter 3**

Chase had spent the entire day in the clinic. He figured House would page him when a case came in, but he didn't. He hardly took a break and when he was forced to, he fled to the basement of the hospital. Taking a break in the more crowed areas of the hospital held the possibility of meeting his father.

Most people would want to know why their fathers flew over the oceans to visit their sons, but Chase wasn't like most people. The water between the two had been too deep and wide. His father might have started to build a bridge; Chase wasn't planning on building his end.

It was already late when Cuddy finally made him go home. He had refused at first, there was nothing at home to do, nothing to keep his mind occupied. But Cuddy had looked at him, and after a few seconds of useless protest he had grabbed his coat and stuff. Perhaps it was for the best, cause when he finally reached his parking space at his apartment, he felt how tired he was.

First, he was thinking he was so tired that he had started to imagine things, but no, a closer look confirmed the view he had seen the first time. His father, the world renowned doctor Rowan Chase was sitting on the stairs, near his flat.

'What do you want?' He said as he fished his keys out of his pocket

'I wanna talk to my son, is that too much to ask?' his father said. Robert looked at his father and he just stared back. He didn't know what made him do it, but he let his father in.

--

Allison Cameron was angry when she walked out of the conference room. She couldn't believe what she had heard in there and the fact that he seemed to find it normal made her even angrier. Chase, the junior version had been gone for a couple of minutes until House had finally broken the silence. In his typical manner he had asked what the senior one was doing here.

Like it was an every day announcement, Rowan Chase informed them that he was planning on taking his son back to Australia. The cancer had spread even further and he had only a few months left. His second marriage had given him daughters and neither one of them was interested in medicine. Now that it was clear he was dying, he wanted his son to continue his work back in Australia.

First Cameron had experienced something like a shock, but when the words sank in and she began to realize the consequences of it all, anger had taken over. Rowan Chase, after years of abandonment had decided that his only son would go back to Australia. Robert's first reaction gave her some hope, but Chase was easy to win over. She knew that herself, she had taken advantage of that and she was scared that his father would take advantage of it too. From that moment doubt had taken over. She knew more about Chase then the rest, she knew he was lonely and perhaps the chance of going back home would win him over.

Of one thing she was sure: she wouldn't survive without him, not after discovering her feelings for him. But she wondered whether she should tell him now. Would it keep him here, or make him run even faster?

On her way home she came to a conclusion, she would have to hope the anger was strong enough to keep him here, then at the right time she would tell him

--

When Cameron entered the conference room, she found Chase's bag in the room, but the person was no where to be seen. He did had the time to make coffee and Cameron poured herself a cup while waiting to show up.

A few minutes later Chase emerged from House's office and walked to the table.

'Hey' she said as he grabbed his bag

'Hey' he replied.

'Where are you going?' she asked.

'Home' was the short answer.

'Why? What did House do this time?' She asked

'He didn't do anything.' Chase said as he made his way over to the door. A cold got hold of her heart and she was almost too afraid to ask the next question

'You're going back, aren't you?' She asked. Chase's eyes left her face and turned to a spot on the floor.

'Why?'

'Why not?' was the reply

'But you can't, you can't go' she said, well more yelled. His eyes focussed back on her face

'Then give me a reason to stay'


End file.
